Many companies are turning their backs on Russia because of the war in Ukraine, but Ritter Sport is not. The boss lets criticism roll off his back.

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/badenwuerttemberg/swr-chef-von-ritter-sport-auch-russische-kinder-essen-gerne-schokolade-100.html

by cito

15 comments

  1. Translation:

    ## Ritter Sport boss: “Russian children also like to eat chocolate”

    **Many companies are turning their backs on Russia because of the war in Ukraine, but Ritter Sport is not. The boss shrugs off criticism.**

    The head of German chocolate manufacturer Ritter Sport, Andreas Ronken, has defended his decision to stick with the Russian business. “Russian children also like to eat chocolate,” he told Focus magazine on Thursday. Moreover, the war would not be won by food restrictions.

    ### Ritter Sport: 200 employees in BW would have to be made redundant

    According to the managing director, as a medium-sized company, the company can no longer stay out of everything politically. However, he could “not only supply countries that behave one hundred percent in line with our morals”, said Ronken.

    “Our decision was the right one, and I would make the same decision again.” Russia is Ritter Sport’s second largest market. “If we had gone out there, we would have had to lay off 200 people at the Waldenbuch site,” said Ronken. The company from Waldenbuch (Böblingen district) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, was heavily criticized after the start of the war for continuing to supply chocolate to Russia.

    ### No advertising and investment in the Russian market

    Ritter Sport had justified the move by citing, among other things, the impact on production, which would ultimately also affect cocoa farmers in West Africa, Central and South America. The company decided to no longer invest in the Russian market, to stop advertising and to donate its profits from Russia to humanitarian aid organizations.

  2. When presented with the choice of either RitterSport or Roshen, I am conflicted because on the one hand I am supporting a company that feeds the Russian war machine because they are greedy fucking cunts, and on the other I am supporting an corrupt oligarch who stole millions from his own people. But here’s the difference. That oligarch didn’t flee. He is still here, and actually doing a lot to support the war effort, as well as support the man who beat him in the last election, which I think does a lot to normalize the idea of a democratic transfer of power that is not well ingrained in former Soviet societies, or even America any more.
    So yeah, fuck Andreas Ronken.

  4. No big loss for me to stop buying Ritter Sport. There are plenty of other chocolate brands out there

  5. Vote with your wallet. There are plenty of other ways to get fat!

  6. Are they emulating the cunts in Nestlé and Mondeléz? This is supposedly family owned business, what a piece of shit family it must be.

  9. I do not believe that the russian market with a meagre 900k annual profit he apparently donates is so important for keeping 200 people. Or he is lying about the profit. They have an annual sales volume of almost 600 million. Apart from that, this is a question of honour.

  10. I use to be a marzipan ritter sport addict (from when I used to work in Germany) so it was tough, but necessary to stop buying them when they first refused to pull out of Ruzzia.
    You’ve gotta have some principals.

  11. They promised to donate all the money from Russia business at the start of the war. What happend to that?

  12. It’s the same conpany that sued a consumer protection foundation for giving their chocolate a bad review because it’s using carcinogenic substances in the chocolate.

    Fuck Ritter Sport

  15. Mother fuckers. Their Marzipan chocolat bars are one of my favorite occasional treats. Welp, I was trying to trim down my belly a bit anyway. Looks like I have even more of a reason to cut way back on them now.

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